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Thread Number: 236
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Original Message
"IE 4.0 vs. Netscape"
Posted by ShadowCrust on Dec-02-00 at 10:59 AM
Well, I recently turned my bank account into an online bank account, meaning that the only access to the account is via the Internet. The drawback: it will only work with MS Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher. So I wondered whether the IE 4.0 has any advantages concerning security over *any* version of the Netscape Navigator/Communicator (it even won't work with NC 6), and if so, what advantages these are.
Any ideas? I just thought I'd ask my fellow wizardry fans before writing an unjustified letter of complaint
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Messages in this discussion
"Let's see .. IE 4.0 is made by who :?"
Posted by Llevram on Dec-02-00 at 11:16 AM
I don't see how anyone could think to equate high security with a Microsoft product. I imagine that since there are some differences in MS IE and Netscape (some web pages have problems because they only write and test in one environment) that they may have just chosen the one they were most comfotable with (or were strong-armed into selecting).

Either way, it minimizes their testing - one plaform instead of two. And you can get MS IE 4.0 (or higher) for free (they should provide it since they require it).

Tools for your Wizardry(r) toolkit

"cost effective, but not saving customers"
Posted by ShadowCrust on Dec-02-00 at 12:51 PM
One should think that banks were rich enough to afford a little more testing... anyway, it's been the first case I encountered where the access to a site is restricted not by version, but by firm... well, other than some non-business sites from MS despisers who wouldn't allow IE users to get to their sites.
I know I can get all MS browsers for free, but I don't want them, not even for free (if you don't take the download cost into "account"). Well, Netscape isn't *much* better, especially since they were bought by AOL, but it's also a matter of habit... old monkeys don't learn new tricks

Thanks for your quick answer, if noone else is trying to convince me of IE's superiority, my bank definitely gets a fierce letter of complaint.

"RE: cost effective, but not saving customers"
Posted by apsen on Dec-05-00 at 11:09 AM
BellAtlantic forced me to install Netscape. But in this
case I needed it only to create account. So I uninstalled it
afterwards. Nut I'm pretty sure that I still have some
Netscape leftovers on my system .
"RE: Let's see .. IE 4.0 is made by who :?"
Posted by Lady_Adrexia on Dec-03-00 at 01:33 PM
Netscape Queen here...

Hey wait, I downloaded Netscape for free. You mean it isn't?? I thought all of the browsers were free.


"reputation rehabilitation :)"
Posted by ShadowCrust on Dec-04-00 at 01:05 AM
I'm not sure if I grasp the meaning of your post, but when I've written "MS browsers are for free", then I don't want to imply that Netscape's browsers aren't. The download costs are a reference to the telephone bill.
By the way, not all browsers are available for free, e. g. Opera or DR Webspy (the last one is Shareware, I think). They are just not that popular, so noone cares about compatibility.
"RE: IE 4.0 vs. Netscape"
Posted by myrddin on Jan-10-01 at 12:44 PM
Personally, I don't think IE is any less or more secure then Netscape, and I'm inclined to think that Netscape might start going downhill in quality since they are now owned by A-Oh-Hell.

The reason is simply that because IE has the largest share of the market, if there are any bugs, loopholes, etc., and MS is so big, that everybody hears about it, it makes the News and it gets a huge amount of publicity. Even tiny minor bugs end up being blown way out of proportion because of this.

I know of people who have found lots of security holes, bugs, errors, etc. in Netscape. Probably just as many in Netscape as in IE.

I really don't know much about the other browsers (Opera, NeoPlanet, Dr.Spy, Webcrawler, etc.) but I would suspect they are just as buggy.

In fact, I would say that probably the most secure browser out there is.......Lynx! Due to the fact it's all text-based, and is for Unix/linux and that practically nobody uses it makes it much less of a target for attacks.

-Myrddin